• First Citizens Bancshares Inc. has agreed to buy large portions of Silicon Valley Bank, taking on all deposits and loans and branches for a discount of $16.5 billion, according to a statement from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. First Citizens said it will begin operating Silicon Valley Bank and its legacy branches today. (The Wall Street Journal)
• Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook met with Wang Wentao, China’s Minister of Commerce, as part of a multiday trip made by the executive to highlight the importance of the relationship between the tech company and China in the midst of ongoing tensions between the United States and Chinese government. The conversation, in which the two parties discussed stabilizing the tech industry supply chain, followed Cook’s comments during the China Development Forum that his company and the country have a “symbiotic” relationship. (Bloomberg)
• Elon Musk told employees of Twitter Inc. that they will receive stock grants based on a roughly $20 billion valuation, less than half of the $44 billion that he purchased the company for last year, but that he sees a “clear, but difficult, path” to a $250 billion valuation, according to an email viewed by The Wall Street Journal. In a separate email, Twitter employees were offered new equity grants that will start to vest after six months, and the company plans to hold a liquidity event in about a year during which employees can cash out some of their equity. (The Wall Street Journal)

Happening today: 

• The Federal Trade Commission and the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division will co-host a Spring Enforcers Summit, featuring FTC Chair Lina Khan, DOJ assistant attorney general Jonathan Kanter and senior staff from both agencies discussing mergers and conduct enforcement.
• QCon, a software development conference, kicks off in London with a focus on emerging trends in the industry.
• The 2023 International Wireless Communications Expo kicks off in Las Vegas, with a theme of “Connecting Critical Communications.” Headliners at the conference include Todd Maxwell, director of public sector at Samsung Electronics America Inc.; and Billy Bob Brown, executive assistant director for emergency communications at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

Americans hooked on Chinese apps

Axios

Pentagon Woos Silicon Valley to Join Ranks of Arms Makers

Sharon Weinberger et al., The Wall Street Journal

The Pentagon is seeking to enlist Silicon Valley startups in its effort to fund and develop new weapons technology and more-nimble suppliers, as the U.S. races to keep pace with China’s military advances.

Apple CEO Cook Stresses Ties With China at Beijing Event

Colum Murphy et al., Bloomberg

Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook returned to China to attend the high-profile China Development Forum to celebrate the iPhone maker’s ties to the region even as tensions grow between Beijing and Washington. 

The Internet Archive has lost its first fight to scan and lend e-books like a library

Jay Peters and Sean Hollister, The Verge

A federal judge has ruled against the Internet Archive in a lawsuit brought by four book publishers.

Why Chinese Apps Are the Favorites of Young Americans

Shen Lu et al., The Wall Street Journal

The concern around TikTok in Washington is drawing fresh attention to how Chinese apps have woven themselves into the fabric of young Americans’ lives—and what makes them so popular.

Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia

Alex Hern, The Guardian

The US chip-maker Nvidia has said cryptocurrencies do not “bring anything useful for society” despite the company’s powerful processors selling in huge quantities to the sector.

Loophole Allows U.S. Tech Exports to Banned Chinese Firms

Ian Talley et al., The Wall Street Journal

The U.S. moved this month to cut off a Chinese conglomerate’s access to Western technology, but the firm can still secure those goods through a technicality that some former senior officials say is a major loophole in the U.S. export-control regime.

Salesforce Averts Elliott Proxy Fight After Share Gains

Brody Ford, Bloomberg

Salesforce Inc. averted a potential proxy fight with activist investor Elliott Investment Management after its price rose and the enterprise software company made a series of strategic changes.

AI Bots Listen In on the Toxic World of Videogame Voice Chat

Sarah E. Needleman, The Wall Street Journal

In the videogame “Gun Raiders,” a player using voice chat could be muted within seconds after hurling a racial slur. The censor isn’t a human content moderator or fellow gamer—it is an artificial intelligence bot.

Microsoft Now Claims GPT-4 Shows ‘Sparks’ of General Intelligence

Chloe Xiang, Motherboard

The eyebrow-raising claim from Microsoft—which is banking on GPT putting it ahead of Google—contrasts with the model’s clear limitations.

How AI might change our judgment and decision-making

Alison Snyder, Axios

Psychologists and behavioral scientists are beginning to study how using sophisticated new AI-driven text and image generators affects human creativity, judgment and decision-making.

Microsoft, Google, Amazon Look to Generative AI to Lift Cloud Businesses

Tom Dotan and Miles Kruppa, The Wall Street Journal

Tech giants are touting new artificial intelligence tools that they say will revolutionize work, learning and creativity. They also have something else in mind: rejuvenating sales in their cloud-computing businesses.

An AI Researcher Tries to Build Good AI While Burning Down the Bad

Margaux MacColl, The Information

Margaret Mitchell was fired by Google. Now she’s the chief AI ethics scientist at one of its startup rivals.

Microsoft Threatens Data Restrictions In Rival AI Search

​​Leah Nylen and Dina Bass, Bloomberg

Microsoft Corp. has threatened to cut off access to its internet-search data, which it licenses to rival search engines, if they don’t stop using it as the basis for their own artificial intelligence chat products, according to people familiar with the dispute.

AI chatbot company Replika restores erotic roleplay for some users

Anna Tong, Reuters

AI chatbot company Replika is restoring erotic roleplay for some users, Replika CEO Eugenia Kuyda said late on Friday.

FCC scores win as court upholds USF constitutionality

Diana Goovaerts, Fierce Wireless

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) notched a key victory in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, as a three-judge panel upheld the constitutionality of the Universal Service Fund (USF) and the agency’s decision to delegate administration of USF programs to a third party.

At Apple, Rare Dissent Over a New Product: Interactive Goggles

Tripp Mickle and Brian X. Chen, The New York Times

The company is expected to unveil an augmented reality headset in a few months. Some employees wonder if the device makes sense for Apple.

iOS 16.4 Will Add These 8 New Features to Your iPhone

Joe Rossignol, MacRumors

Following nearly six weeks of beta testing, iOS 16.4 is expected to be released to the public as soon as this week. The software update includes a handful of new features and changes for the iPhone 8 and newer.

Microsoft pushes OOB security updates for Windows Snipping tool flaw

Lawrence Abrams, Bleeping Computer

Microsoft released an emergency security update for the Windows 10 and Windows 11 Snipping tool to fix the Acropalypse privacy vulnerability.

Human error is threatening Okta passwords, researchers warn

Sam Sabin, Axios

A simple error where Okta users are incorrectly typing their passwords into the username field during login could be leaving them exposed to future attacks.

Pinduoduo App Malware Detailed by Cybersecurity Researchers

Sarah Zheng, Bloomberg

Security researchers at Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab have identified and outlined potential malware in versions of PDD Holdings Inc.’s Chinese shopping app Pinduoduo, days after Google suspended it from its Android app store.

Twitter source code leaked online, court filings show

Ashley Capoot, CNBC

Pieces of the computer code used to run Twitter were leaked online, according to court filings, marking the social media site’s latest hurdle since Elon Musk’s tumultuous $44 billion takeover of the company late last year.

The teen mental health crisis: a reckoning for Big Tech

Jamie Smyth and Hannah Murphy, Financial Times

A growing body of evidence links a rise in depression in children to social media use. Will it lead to more regulation?

Utah governor: Social media law limiting minors’ access not “foolproof”

Erin Doherty, Axios

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) said Sunday that his state’s new first-of-its-kind legislation that restricts children and teens from using social media without their parents’ consent are not expected to be “foolproof.”

What if Meta launches a mobile app store?

Eric Benjamin Seufert, Mobile Dev Memo

If Microsoft sees mobile gaming as strategically valuable, and advertising supports that thesis, then a natural question is: won’t Meta launch a mobile games store, too?

AOC goes viral on TikTok with video against banning app

Shawna Chen, Axios

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-N.Y.) first and only TikTok video has gone viral — and in it, she outlines her case against banning the Chinese-owned social media app as its fate hangs in the balance.

TikTok’s Next Stop Is US Courts as CEO Falls Flat

Zheping Huang et al., Bloomberg

TikTok CEO Shou Chew’s attempts to win over Congressional lawmakers Thursday failed. But the more crucial fight to prevent the short-video app from being punished or banned is likely to play out in the US legal system. 

A TikTok Ban May Be Just the Beginning

Christopher Mims, The Wall Street Journal

If the video app is blocked by federal authorities, it could be the beginning of the end for mega-popular Chinese apps in the U. S.—and for China’s ambitions to build a software-driven economy.

TikTok Shifts Into Damage Control Mode

Kaya Yurieff, The Information

TikTok and some companies that work with the popular app have shifted into damage control mode after a rancorous Congressional grilling of TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew failed to allay lawmakers’ concerns that its Chinese parent, ByteDance, poses a national security risk.

Salesforce Considers More Job Cuts Amid Profit Push, COO Says

Brody Ford, Bloomberg

Salesforce Inc. could see another round of job cuts while the company continues to focus on improving profitability, said Chief Operating Officer Brian Millham.